, 1887-06-09
THE TREASURY ATTIC.
PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES OF ITS
CURIOUS SIGHTS.
Millions OF Files and Acres of Old Rec
ords-The Octogcnarian Clerk-The
Government hssayer-weighinga u Hair.
Testing Oleomargarine.
Especial Correspondence.l

Testing O1eOmargarine.
Especial Correspondence.l
WASHINGTON, May 1s.
Just below the White House and one mile
down the avenue from the Capitol rises the
gloomy structure known as the United States
treasury. 1t has many columns along its
front and sides, and II looks for all the world
as IL it was tho sarcophagus of some great
giant Of the time of the mastodons. Its
stones are discolored with the weather of two
generations, and its massiveness makes 1t as
gloomy as u tomb. The doors of the base
ment appear to be cut into the walls, and as
you enter you feel as though you were going
into a prison. Within you find your sur
roundings much like those of the catecombs,
and the passages go in SO many directions
that one might easily get lost and wander for
some time before finding his way out. Here
one may find many strange things which the
outside world never dreams of. He would
see other industries going on than those of
money making and money keeping, and he
might study half dozen trades in the lower
basement, and have his meals served at the
restaurant of this treasury city.
n*M
For the treasury is city indeed. It's every
part Is honey combed with industry, and
from basement TO attic 1t Is filed with strange
/ wish to treat of the attic alone. 1t Is way
up under the roof, and 1t composes two acres
of floor, upon which the feet of visitors
rarely tread 1t is lighted by little windows
looking out of the deep walls, and it is cut up
into rooms, halls and corridors the most of
which are packed with records and doc,l-
ments All the papers relating TO the treas
ury department during the past 100 years are
carefully kept, and to-day as ! walked
Il. .....h "a.
me that l covered miles in going up one
aisle and down another. There were thous-
ands of bank notes, millions of reports and
millions of accounts showing the labors OF
thousands, year after year, SINCE the govern
ment was founded. As looked at the tons
of careful writing could not help thinking
Of the brains and muscle represented by
them. There Is enough manuscript here
should judge, TO carpet the state of New
York, and fully half of it is made up of fig
ures. Every line of these millions upon mil
lions of papers consumed a certain amount of
muscle in its writing, and here is represented
the life works of an army now dead The in
ternal revenue records alone comprise enough
old paper to keep the Holyoke mills busy for
weeks and the stubs of all the tobacco stamps
ever granted are here. or the letters re-
ceived and those sent by the different COM
missoners, the records of all the department
dexed and laid away.
The files of the secretary proper have a
hall to themselves, large enough almost for
baseball ground, and the walls or files in this
hall contain 14,OOO file boxes Two walls OF
files contain the certificates of deposit of all
the national banks of the country, also the
important papers which make the assistant
treasurers of the United States responsible
for the millions of money which they receive
HIM II mat tl, ,I.l s.I.I
had been In the treasury depnrtment over
fifty years, and as looked on him thought
he was fit accompaniment to the old, yell
low, musty records he was guarding. He sat
at a little square table, between two walls of
papers running up to the ceiling His eyes
were small and sharp, his hair iron gray, and
slightly bald at the top. His coat was little
worn, as, indeed, was everything about him.
He pointed to the two walls of paper which
make up the narrow room where he lives
away his life, and said
4+*
Those papers represent billions of dollars
In those two walls are the certificates of deposit
of nearly all the money the treasury owns
There is u single paper in that box over there
which represents al, 100000 1t belongs to a
bank in New York. Oh, my boy! there is
millions in i'll there is millions in i'll hal hal"
And he laughed IL dry parchment laugh as
he made his little joke
$50 you nave been in the treasury a long
timeN said l.
EYES," replied he, ~ came i'm with Andrew
jackson as messenger. and have been here
ever since. These fifty years / have grown
gray In the treasury service, and now they
talk OF examining me to see whether am fit
to be here The other clerks are studying
geography and arithmetic, bat l think 1t is
too late for me to begin, ha hal'
But here NV emilia lad ma awoy mud loft
the old clerk watching these hundreds of
millions and paid perhaps n salary of $1,000
year.
next visited the assay office; for the gov
ernment has an assay office located in the
treasury department-and here, away out OF
the sight of all, the coin of the mint is tested
and analyzed. If found to be of full value,
or nearly so. they are allowed to be issued
IL not, they are not. The government assayer,
Mr. Lower, young man with a heavy
blonde mustache, high, pale forehead and
an intellectual and scholarlike air, has full